Samuel Crompton was born on December 3, 1753, and died on June 26, 1827. He was an English inventor who played an important role in the development of the spinning industry. He created the spinning mule, a machine that greatly changed the industry worldwide. His invention was based on the earlier work of James Hargreaves and Richard Arkwright.

Early life

Samuel Crompton was born on October 30, 1730, at 10 Firwood Fold, Bolton, Lancashire, to George and Betty Crompton (née Elizabeth Holt of Turton). His father worked as a caretaker at Hall i' th' Wood, a nearby location. Samuel had two younger sisters. When he was a boy, his father passed away, and Samuel began helping his family by spinning yarn. He learned to spin using a machine called the spinning jenny, invented by James Hargreaves. He noticed problems with the machine and decided to create a better invention. He worked on this idea in secret for five to six years, using all of his free time and money, even the income he earned by playing the violin at the Bolton theatre.

On February 16, 1780, at Bolton Parish Church, Samuel married Mary Pimlott (also spelled Pimbley). The couple had eight children, including George Crompton, who was born on January 8, 1781. George later worked in the same business as his father.

Spinning mule

In about 1779, Samuel Crompton created a machine called the mule-jenny, which produced yarn suitable for making muslin. The machine was also known as the muslin wheel or the Hall i' th' Woodwheel, named after the house where Crompton and his family lived. Later, the machine was called the spinning mule. There was high demand for the yarn Crompton made at Hall i' th' Wood, but he could not afford to take out a patent. Others tried to learn his methods, forcing Crompton to choose between destroying his machine or sharing his design publicly. He chose to share it after several manufacturers promised to pay him for using the mule. After this, Crompton continued spinning on his own, but with limited success.

The mule-jenny twisted the rovings using rollers similar to Arkwright's frame. The spindle carriage moved back and forth 54 inches to stretch the thread and then gathered it into the spinning spindles in a way similar to Hargreaves' jenny. The mule's importance was that it could spin thread more finely than could be done by hand. Coarse thread (40s) sold for 14 shillings per pound, while finer thread (80s) made on the mule sold for 42 shillings per pound.

Because the mule was not patented, others quickly copied the machine. It was made of iron, and by 1790, power was added to help move parts. By 1834, the machine was fully automatic. A survey in 1812 showed that between 4 and 5 million mule spindles were in use. Crompton did not receive any money from his invention.

In 1800, people raised £500 to help Crompton. Later, in 1809, Edmund Cartwright, the inventor of the power loom, received £10,000 from parliament. This inspired Crompton to apply for a grant. In 1811, he visited Lancashire and Scotland to gather evidence about how widely his mule was used. In 1812, parliament awarded him £5,000. With this money, Crompton started a business as a bleacher and later as a cotton merchant and spinner, but it was not successful. In 1824, friends from Bolton's Black Horse "prosecution" Club, including Isaac and Benjamin Dobson, Benjamin Hick, John Kennedy, and Peter Rothwell, secretly gave him an annual payment of £63.

Crompton died on June 26, 1827, at his home in King Street, Bolton, and was buried at St. Peter's parish church.